This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
Modern data centers typically include a number of managed infrastructure devices that are used to provide cooling and power to the various servers, routers, switches and other data center components. Such managed infrastructure devices may include computer room air conditioning (CRAC) units, power distribution units (PDUs) and other devices. Many of the managed infrastructure devices have progressed in sophistication to the point where they each include their own on-board computer or processor. The computer or processor may communicate the operational status of the device and may be controlled by an independent subsystem. The independent subsystem may be used to control operation of the CRAC units and PDUs, for example by shutting down a CRAC unit to save costs during periods where usage of the data center devices (i.e., servers, routers, etc.) is low. In some instances the independent subsystem may be part of an overall data center infrastructure management (DCIM) system that manages all the data center devices such as servers, routers, processors, and network switches, and also enables remote access to the data center devices from remote terminals.
However, with the ability to communicate with the computers of various managed infrastructure devices such as CRAC units and PDUs comes the potential for security issues as well. A virus infected file or malware which infects an on-board computer of a CRAC unit, a PDU or any other managed infrastructure device, can potentially disrupt operation of the device, as well as potentially impact operation of other devices in the data center such as servers, PDUs, routers, etc. Having a virus or malware infect even just one CRAC unit could potentially result in the need to shut down an entire equipment row of servers. In some large scale data centers, this could involve shutting down dozens or even hundreds of servers. As such, it will be apparent that there is a strong need to be able to perform real time security scans on CRAC units, PDUs and other important managed infrastructure devices. Ideally, the real time security scans would operate to detect security threats, to provide security notifications to IT personnel, and to quarantine or remove potential security threats that could affect the operation of highly important data center infrastructure devices.